Cedar Point unveils new coaster GateKeeper

Published 9:00 am, Friday, June 7, 2013

After months of planning, construction and testing, Cedar Point unveiled its latest roller coaster to a group of media and coaster enthusiasts last Thursday.

GateKeeper, 170 feet high, is the newest of the park’s 16 roller coasters.

Park officials were on hand to address the crowd and introduce the ride. They gave some insight into creating the ride and hinted at big things for the future.

John Hildebrandt, general manager of Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, introduced the ride, which is a record breaker. It’s the tallest, fastest and longest of its kind, a winged coaster that suspends riders to either side of the coaster track. The ride features a series of banks and rolls, each with its own name from the 105-foot camelback to the Immelmann half loop.

Planning coasters takes a bit of a leap of faith. Cedar Point worked with ride manufacturer Bollinger and Mabillard, the Swiss firm responsible for the park’s Raptor. Construction started after last season when the park was closed (although demolition of the Disaster Transport occurred while the park was open). The ride powered up in late March/early April for testing.

But designers and park officials didn’t know if it would be fun until they were able to hop in the seats themselves.

“You can have great stats, you can have so many hundreds of feet high,” Hildebrandt said, “but until you ride it, you just don’t know.”

Hildebrandt is pleased with the results. The transitions are smooth, there’s more airtime than expected, the keyholes provide the thrills they expected and the ride is nice and long, he said. It’s also a bit deceptive.

“If you watch the ride operate, it seems like it’s going a bit slow. If you stand under it, it lumbers along,” he said. “It’s like greased lightning — the sensation of speed is amazing.”

There were a few hints on the ride’s success. A key feature of the GateKeeper are the keyholes that riders fly through near the front of the park. The coaster train turns sideways to fit and it is designed to provide a feeling of a near miss — that the riders will feel like they won’t make it.

Cedar Fair (the park’s parent company) President and CEO Matthew Ouimet got a sneak peak at these features during assembly and delivery.

“I had the opportunity to walk in the middle of the keyhole,” he said during his speech at media day. “The only thing I could say was, ‘Wow.’”

For Ouimet, the keyholes delivered on the promised experience.

“Last week I had my first ride on GateKeeper and I got to the keyholes and I can’t tell you what I said.”

Rob Decker, corporate vice president of planning and design for Cedar Fair, said the near miss elements in GateKeeper are inspired by a low hanging bar on the Gemini, a longtime fixture at the park. The company seems to be banking on GateKeeper’s popularity, as it is a highly visible ride.

GateKeeper starts at the beach, brings us all the way out to the front of the park where it does a fly over, a maneuver at the front gate,” he said. “It’s that moment where I wanted to get everyone really excited about being here at Cedar Point.”

But even with its record-breaking stats, officials are hoping the new ride appeals to a broader audience of coaster enthusiasts.

“We think it’s going to have wider appeal than some of our other big thrill coasters,” Hildebrandt said. “Some people are just too intimidated by the height (of other coasters).”

Early feedback was positive, Hildebrandt said. Riders at the media day (invited coaster enthusiasts from around the world) had already been on the ride a dozen times by 9 a.m., he said. The park also had a record opening weekend in 2013, possibly because of the new ride.

And there are big plans for the future. Oulimet previous announced the company will upgrade its hotels around and on Cedar Point. He also hinted at the park’s next big thing.

“Just to tease you a little bit, we’ve given Rob (Decker) another challenge — more to follow.”